A practical approach

By Vivienne Greig

The Book of Victorian Heroes by Adam Hart-Davis and Paul Bader, Sutton,
£6.99, ISBN 0750928204

TO WHOM would I give this book? That’s easy: anyone who thinks the word
“Victorian” is a term of abuse. Victorian inventors were astonishingly prolific
and many of their gadgets are still with us. Can you imagine life without the
fax? Scottish shepherd Alexander Bain patented his machine in 1875. Where would
we be without the algebra developed by George Boole around 1850 that now
underlies every computer?

They worked on everything from the perfect way to boil an egg—an
automatic …

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